A Diet for Heart Surgery Patients

If you have been diagnosed with heart disease you may have had a surgery related to your condition. Even if you have not had heart surgery but you have been diagnosed with coronary artery disease (CAD) or congestive heart failure (CHF). Even if your cardiologist has told you that you have an abnormal heart rhythm, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes or any combination of these, you need to know what and how much to eat.

See the Glass as Half Full
Any time people read the word "diet", their minds first think of what they cannot have. However, a diet is as much about what you can have as what you can't have. Furthermore, even for open heart surgery patients, a diet isn't about what you can't have at all. It's really more about moderation and figuring out a balance for your diet and lifestyle overall. With that said, let's talk about what's on that list of things to cut back (maybe way back) on.

Heart Surgery Patients' "Red Light" Foods: Eat Seldom or Not at All

The following foods are commonly eaten or loved, but have a a lot of cholesterol. Here's the list of those foods along with things you can replace them with:

-Whole eggs with yolks (egg whites only)

-Crisco and coconut oil (margarine, olive oil, canola oil)

-Shrimp (fatty fishes with Omega-3 fats like tuna, mackerel and cod)

-Ground beef (97% lean ground sirloin, ground turkey breast)

-Chicken with skin (chicken with no skin, firm tofu)


The following foods have bad fats you should avoid (saturated fat, hydrogenated oil, trans fat)

-Biscuits, croutons and other fatty grains (whole wheat bread, bran muffins)

-Sour cream, butter ( fat free sour cream, fat free dressings, vegetable oil spreads)

-Ice cream, 2% milk, whole milk (sorbet, reduced-fat ice cream, 1% milk, skim milk)

-Potato chips, tortilla chips (baked chips, whole grain crackers)


Take Your Time Making Changes
Health behaviors are statistically the hardest ones to change. Since you need to make these changes to your diet as a part of a healthy lifestyle, it will be easiest to help them become set in if you don't overwhelm yourself with it all at once. However, if your doctor or registered dietitian has told you that certain foods cannot be eaten by you whatsoever, then you need to follow their instructions absolutely.


For some people with advanced heart disease, it may have come to a point where you simply cannot moderate some foods, but you have to give them up altogether. If that's so, then learn to embrace your new lifestyle by using your creativity. Start an indoor herb garden to replace your salty seasonings. Take a healthy cooking class at the local community college. This doesn't have to be an end. Allow it to be a new, healthy beginning for you, your heart and your whole family.

By starting out on this path to a healthier diet, you may be able to save another family member from developing heart disease while you preserve your own quality of life. Below are some resources to get you started.